Quick test in Flash to see how my flu virus will look when animated. This is a textured Maya model which I've brought into Flash and worked over frame by frame. In my final animation, the Maya models will be moved through the scene and then I will work over them in this way to create facial expressions etc.

Very sad that it was our last life drawing session of the year today but we had the wonderful Lydia to draw. We started with quicker poses - a few 10 minutes, then down to 1 minute, 30 second and 10 second drawings which were great. Then we had a couple of 20 minute poses at the end. I came to both the morning and afternoon sessions today.

The hype surrounding the release of The Blair Witch Project in 1999 was immense. With a budget of only around $25,000 the film made almost $250 million at the box office and built up a reputation way before the film was even released.

The film is shot as a documentary about the legend of a witch living in a town previously called Blair, now renamed to Burkittsville. Set in the time the film was released, three students come together to film their investigation into the story which begins with interviews with the local townsfolk. The locals tell of how, in the 1940s, seven children and a number of adults from the town had gone missing, apparently killed by the Blair Witch. The trio drive deep into the woods and begin their search for further information into whether or not the tale is real. As they journey further into the woods by foot, Heather, Josh and Mike discover strange things, such as seven piles of stones and stick figures hanging in the trees. As night falls, things start to get scarier as they hear strange sounds coming from their tent; three piles of stones are left surrounding them and they are obviously being hunted.

Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, who wrote, directed and edited the film wanted to movie to feel as real as possible and achieved this in many ways. The actors used their own names and had a minimal script to work from. The directors would make noises around the actors' tent in the middle of the night to catch them unawares and ensure they gave the most realistic performance possible. Peter Travers speak of this in his 1999 Rolling Stone review: "There was little contact with the actors, who were deprived of sleep and sometimes food rations in the name of authenticity. Still, there's no doubting the payoff. Sanchez and Myrick have made a sly virtue of limited resources and made a film that will creep you out of your skin." (Travers, 1999). This technique has been successfully used by other directors such as Stanley Kurick.

Because of the way in which the film was shot, particularly in the months leading up to the release of the film, there was some talk that the story was genuine. Ariana Bacle says in the article she wrote about the film: "When The Blair Witch Project came out in 1999, some people thought the film was true: They thought these three kids really went into the woods and disappeared forever, leaving only their video cameras full of spooky footage behind. And though it wasn’t true, the three stars did have to get through some tough times to film the movie." (Bacle, 2014). This 'found footage' style of filming has undoubtedly influenced many other films, such as Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity. In his review for the Guardian, Philip French explains: "The film plays on the fact that we live in a time when the gap between fiction and fact has become blurred, and not merely in docudramas." (French, 1999).

Fig.4 Stick figures hanging in the trees, (Movie still, 1999)

Although there are mixed reviews of The Blair Witch Project it is undoubtedly a film that most people would have heard about and is marked as the beginning of a new genre of films. Roger Ebert says in his review: "The movie is like a celebration of rock-bottom production values - of how it doesn't take bells and whistles to scare us." (Ebert, 1999).﻿ There has been a sequel to the film which was not as big a success and this seems to be due to the over-production and less 'real' feel. The Blair Witch Project is definitely a lesson that it does not necessarily need a huge budget to make a lot of money!

Monday, 23 March 2015

Our task today in Jordan's lesson was to do some quick self portrait studies and then take one forward to work into further. I was dreading this at the beginning but I got into it by using different brushes and techniques, such as continuous line, using the lasso tools and distorting the mirror.

First few studies including polygonal lasso tool and continuous line

Trying out different brushes

Distorted mirror

Distorted mirror

Trying out different brushes again!

Different brushes and lasso tool

This is one of the distorted mirror studies I took forward to work into further. Quite pleased with the result :)